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■* LIBRARY OF CONGRliSS. I 






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SLAVERY: 



J. L. BAKER. 



AUTHOR OP "iXPORTS AND IMPORTS," "MEN AND THINQS," &o. 




/PHILADELPHIA: 

JOHN A. NORTON, 

I860. 



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SLAYERY 



The recent attempt of John Brown to incite an insurrection 
at Harper's Ferry has created no little excitement throughout 
the country. Strange and desperate as the movement was, it 
seems to have been the natural and necessary result of the long 
twenty years' war, Avaged in the free States upon the institutions 
of the South, the culminating point, it is to be hoped, in a 
reform based on no sound principle, and which, like an epidemic, 
has swept over the laud, fruitful only in bitter words, harsh re- 
crimination, sectional hostility, and ending, like the last act of a 
tragedy, in violence and murder. 

The scene that has been enacted at Harper's Ferry will perhaps 
have the effect to open the eyes of the nation, so that they can see 
fully the yawning gulf, the brink of which they have at last reached, 
and lead them to examine the ground on which they stand ; inquire 
what they have been doing, and what good cause can be served by 
a course of action which has led to such fatal results. Many lives 
have been sacrificed. A whole family has been ruined, and an old 
man has been led out to suffer the last and most terrible infliction of 
the law. He has been but an instrument in the hands of others, 
who have acted, with the exception of some political leaders, from 
honest convictions. 

The time has now come, however, for them to inquire, and for all 
to inquire with the utmost seriousness, if these convictions of duty 
have been just and commendable, or if they have been mistaken, 
and therefore to be condemned. Zeal without knowledge is a 
dangerous weapon, as all history has proved, and it is incumbent 
upon all, not only to do right, but to" think right. It is an old 
maxim that ignorance of the law excuses no man, and it is equally 
true that we are not at liberty to follow our blind impulses, but are 
bound to inform ourselves, and to know whether a particular course 
of action, however well intended, is such as will not defeat the very 



purposes we have in view, while it brings misery and ruin to 
thousands of our fellow beings. 

Liberty has been in all ages of the world a most fruitful theme 
for the poet and the orator, and still its true nature and conditions 
are but imperfectly understood. Constitutional liberty, such as that 
of England and the United States, is possible only to a race that has 
n physical temperament that fits it for self-control or self-govern- 
ment, and to such a race only is it a blessing. But few such races 
have been known in history. One of them was the Grecian, and 
afterwards the Roman, but both became degenerated, and lost the 
capacity of self-government. 

In modern times the English nation has exhibited the same ca- 
pacity, which belongs also to ourselves, who are of the same blood. 
No other people have those constitutional traits which fit them for 
self-government, which is but another name for self-restraint. The 
Frenchman is volatile, fickle, and fond of glory, and less free to-day 
than he was under Louis the Sixteenth. He has a government 
which answers to his wants and his genius, which exactly represents 
his condition, and contributes, therefore, most to his happiness. 
Should he, in the course of centuries, become changed in his physical 
and mental constitution, he will find, necessarily, a government that 
corresponds to the progress he has made. Governments are but the 
agents and representatives of the people. They reflect very nearly 
the condition of the governed, and change to meet the changes of 
those they represent. No mortal power can prevent any people 
from taking and enjoying that degree of freedom they are capa- 
ble of enjoying, and which would, therefore, contribute to their hap- 
piness. What is true of France, is true of the other European 
nations, and of all nations ; so that we never deceive ourselves more 
completely than when we talk of political liberty as something 
equally applicable to all, and attainable by all. 

Such liberty the Anglo-Saxon finds contributing to his happiness ; 
but it may be the greatest curse, as it has often proved to those who 
have different blood in their veins, who have not the same capacity 
of self-control, and who enjoy, therefore, as much, if not more, 
under governments suited to their peculiar temperaments. An 
Italian Republic exists only in the dreams of Mazzini and Garibaldi, 
and yet if the sum of human happiness could be measured, there 
may be as much happiness in Italy, and perhaps more than is to be 
found in the two nations that are able to live under a constitutional 
government. 

It often happens, that among those nations which require a strong 



; 



government, we find a larger amount of social freedom, than among 
those who are politically more free. A man is more free to express 
an opinion in Paris, upon any matter of science or religion, or 
other topic, excepting politics, than he is in Boston. He stands less 
in awe of his neighbors, feels less the pressure of public opinion, 
than do we, on whom government bears lightly, but who are, to a 
corresponding extent, the slaves of Public Sentiment. "Where laws 
bear lightest, Public Opinion takes their place, and becomes, often, 
a dreadful tyrant, as is seen frequently in our western States, and 
on the borders of civilization. On the other hand, where there 
exists the least political freedom, we find the largest social liberty, 
as though one was incompatible with the other, which is probably 
the case, and for the reason that man must be governed to a 
certain extent in some way, and if he becomes politically more 
free, he becomes by necessity, socially, more enslaved. 

We shall find, if we look at the different nations of the world, 
that each enjoys that degree of liberty, either political or social, 
which most contributes to its happiness. If this were not the case 
with any nation, it is certain that its condition would be changed at 
once, to correspond to its wants and capacities. No government, 
however despotic, could for a moment prevent such a result ; nor is 
it at all safe to judge of the real condition of a nation, by the ex- 
cited harangues of such enthusiasts as Kossuth and Mazzini. 

As fast as a people become capable of self-control or self-govern- 
ment, just so fast the government becomes modified to meet their 
wants ; for they are in fact the government, and rulers are but 
their representatives. 

This view of liberty will be considered, I am aware, by many 
as very heretical and not at all in accordance with the facts of 
history or the nature of man. To some it will, no doubt, appear 
new as well as strange, and very doubtful. That what we 
call constitutional liberty, however, depends mainly upon the pe- 
culiar physical and moral temperament of a people, I cannot 
doubt. Self-government is constitutional in more senses than one. 
Such at least is the result of my reflections upon the subject. 
The lesson I learn from history is, that no amount of physical or 
mental culture can materially change the peculiar temperament 
which belongs to each race. A nation may be educated to excel 
in all the arts and all the sciences, in oratory, philosophy, poetiy, 
music, and painting, but not in the art of self-government, which 
implies a natural gift bestowed upon a very small portion of the 
human race. To judge of a people in tais respect we must also 



^ 



witness their capacity at home, and not be deceived by what hap- 
pens to individuals or small communities when thrown into the 
midst of a self-controlling or self-governing race. Such is the case 
with our German population which constitutes an intelligent, useful, 
law-abiding portion of our citizens, and to all appearance capable of 
exercising the functions of self-government. But we must con- 
sider that they exist here surrounded and entirely controlled by 
our own people, and in some parts of the Union have been born 
and brought up under our institutions. If we wish to know the 
capacity of their race for self-government, we must go to Germany, 
and if possible find it there. The German race comes nearest to 
our own and excels it in some respects, though wanting the neces- 
sary political elements ■W'ith Avhich we are gifted. For many years 
the profoundest scholars and the greatest musical composers have 
been found in Germany, which has also produced in Goethe and 
Schiller, names worthy to rank Avith the greatest of modern times. 
We come from the same stock and the same northern hive, but 
have pursued different courses, and have not now the same blood in 
our veins. One race takes naturally to politics, for which it has 
an aptitude and capacity, the other as naturally to music and 
painting, to science and philosophy. In the lapse of centuries, 
the physical constitution of both may change. The English may 
lose by admixture the peculiar qualities of blood which now dis- 
tinguish them, and so lose their capacity of self-control. They may 
become degenerated, like the Romans, by the enervating influence 
of luxury, and like that nation lose their constitutional liberty. So 
on the other hand, Germany may, in the progi*ess of time, undergo 
changes equally great and in precisely the opposite direction. A 
union of the different races of that vast kingdom may produce a 
new result. A new race may arise which shall excel the pi-esent race 
of Englishmen, in the capacity of self-government. The present 
English race is the work of centuries, and contains the blood of 
Saxons, Danes, and Normans, blended in due proportion for the 
production of a certain result, and such a result as can nowhere 
else be witnessed. 

If the theory of human liberty, Avhich I have thus so briefly and 
imperfectly suggested, is the true one, and is supported by the facts 
of history, then it will furnish us with a key to unlock some of those 
hard problems in human life and destiny which have so puzzled 
mankind, and which have resisted all attempts at solution. 

If we regard all nations as moving on in the sphere designed by 
Providence, each seeking and finding its happiness in its own way, 



J 



— some less capable of self-restraint than others, some enjoying a 
high degree of political liberty, and some, on the other hand, in 
possession of a high degree of social freedom ; their happiness de- 
pendent not so much on the peculiar forms of their government as 
upon its adaptation to their peculiar wants and capacities, — we shall 
be relieved of much of that commiseration and misplaced sympathy 
which we have bestowed upon others, and which was, perhaps, more 
needed by ourselves. Viewed in the light I have suggested, and 
also in connection with the great facts, moral and physical, of which 
I am about to speak more particularly, the problem of negro slavery 
in the United States is not one so difficult of solution as has been 
generally supposed. The recent outbreak in Virginia brings home 
to us, with renewed and redoubled force, the question. What must 
become of the millions of slaves in our Southern States, could they 
be set free by some such movement as that of John Brown, urged 
on by those who have been for many years engaged in agitating the 
subject ? 

This is the important matter for our consideration, or rather it 
should have been the matter to have been considered many years 
ago. This is the problem which should have been solved by those 
who have been so long dealing in such extravagant language and 
" glittering generalities " about the natural rights of man. They 
should have informed us what is to become of those millions, sud- 
denly let loose from restraint and thrown upon their own resources, 
no longer to be protected by the white race, but to be met by com- 
petition, by undying prejudice, extreme social hardship, and the 
" irrepressible conflict " of incompatible races. 

Those of us who have attained to middle age have been taught 
by experience that no portion of those millions could exist for any 
length of time on the soil of Massachusetts. But for the occasional 
emigration from the South, a negro would now be a sight as rare 
in this State as that of a wild Indian, hardly a remnant being left 
of the families which we knew in our boyhood. 

From statistics gathered by the late Dr. Jesse Chickering, it ap- 
pears that the blacks die in Massachusetts in a ratio of three to 
one as compared with the whites. This state of things is the result 
of both moral and physical causes. The depressing influence of 
extreme social hardship, which no philanthropy can alleviate, ac- 
counts in a great measure for this unequal mortality ; while physical 
causes operate, perhaps, still more to the same effect. Of the latter, 
we may learn something from a paper read a few years since before 



^ 



8 



the liostou Society of Nuturul History, by Dr. Samuel Kneeland, 
Jr., from which the following is an extract : — 

" The mulatto is often triumphantly appealed to as a proof that 
hybrid races are prolific without end. Every physician who has 
seen much practice among the mulattoes knows that, in the first 
place, they are far less prolific than the blacks or whites, — the statis- 
tics of New York State and city confirm this fact of daily observa- 
tion ; and, in the second place, when they are prolific, the progeny 
is frail, diseased, short-lived, rarely arriving at robust manhood or 
maturity. Physicians need not be told of the comparatively enormous 
amount of scrofulous and deteriorated constitutions found among 
those hybrids. 

"The Colonization Journal furnishes some statistics with regard 
to the colored population of New York city, which must prove pain- 
fully interesting to all reflecting people. The late census showed 
that, while other classes of our population in all parts of the country 
were increasing in an enormous ratio, the colored were decreasing. 
In the State of New York, in 1840, there were fifty thousand; in 
1850, only forty-seven thousand. In New York city, in 1840, 
there were eighteen thousand ; in 1850, seventeen thousand. Ac- 
cording to the New York City Inspector's report for the four months, 
ending with October, 1853 : — 

1. The whites present marriages 2,230 

The colored " " 26 

2. The whites " births, 6,780 

The colored " " 70 

3. The whites " deaths about 6,000 

(exclusive of 2,152 among 116,000 newly-arrived 
emigrants, and others unacclimated.) 
The colored exhibit deaths 160 

giving a ratio of deaths among acclimated whites to colored persons 
of thirty -seven to one ; while the births are ninety-seven whites to 
one colored. The ratio of whites to colored, is as follows : — 
Marriages, 140 to 1 ; births, 97 to 1 ; deaths, 37. to 1. According 
to the ratio of tlie population, the marriages among the whites, 
during this time, are three times greater than among the colored ; 
the number of births among the whites is twice as great. In deaths, 
the colored exceed the white not only according to ratio of popula- 
tion, but show one hundred and sixty-five deaths to seventy-six 
births, or seven deaths to three births, — more than two to one. 

" The same is true of Boston, as far as the census returns wiU 
enable us to judge. In Shattuck's census of 1845, it appears that 



in that year there were one hun(h'ed and tbrty-six less colored per- 
sons in Boston than in 1840 ; the total number being 1842. From 
the same work, the deaths are given for a period of fifty years, from 
1725 to 1775, showing the mortality among the blacks to have 
been twice that among the whites. Of late years, Boston, prob- 
ably, does not differ from itself in former times, nor from New 
York at present. In the compendium of the United States census 
for 1850, p. 64, it is said that the ' declining ratio of the increase 
of the free colored in every section is notable. In New England, 
the increase is now almost nothing ; ' in the south-west and the 
Southern states, the increase is much reduced ; it is only in the 
north-west that there is any increase, ' indicating a large emigration 
to that quarter.' What must become of the black population at 
this rate in a few years ? What are the causes of this decay ? 
They do not disregard the laws of social and physical well-being 
any more than, if they do as much as, the whites. It seems to me 
one of the necessary consequences of attempts to mix races ; the 
hybrids cease to be prolific ; the race must die out as mulatto ; it 
must either keep black unmixed, or become extinct. Nobody 
doubts that a mixed offspring may be produced Ijy intermarriage of 
different races, — the Griquas, the Papuas, the Cafuses of Brazil, 
so elaborately enumerated by Prichard, sufficiently prove this. 
The question is, whether they would be perpetuated if strictly 
confined to intermarriage among themselves ? From the facts in 
the case of mulattoes, we say unquestionably not. The same is 
true, as far as has been observed, of the mixture of the white and 
red races, in Mexico, Central and South America. The well-known 
infrequency of mixed offspring between the European and Aus- 
tralian races, led the Colonial government to official inquiries, and 
to the result, that, in thirty-one districts, numbering fifteen thousand 
inhabitants, the half-breeds did not exceed two hundred, though the 
connection of the two races was very intimate. 

" If any one wishes to be convinced of the inferiority and tendency 
to disease in the mulatto race, even with the assistance of the pure 
blood of the black and white race, he need only witness what I did 
recently, viz. : the disembarkation from a steamboat of a colored 
pic-nic party, of both sexes, of all ages, from the infant in arms 
to the aged, and of all hues, from the darkest black to a color 
approaching white. There was no old mulatto, though there were 
several old negroes ; many fine-looking mulattoes of both sexes, 
evidently the fii'st offspring from the pure races ; then came the 
youths and children, and here could be read the sad truth at a 
2 



>^ 



10 



glance. The little blacks were ugilc and healthy-looking ; the little 
mulattoefi, youths and young women, farther removed from the pure 
stocks, were sickly, feeble, thin, with frightful scars and skin 
diseases, and scrofula stamped on every feature and every visible 
part of the body. Here was hybridity of human races, under the 
most favorable circumstances of worldly condition and social 
position." 

Such are the results of an unfavorable climate and the mixture 
of the blood of two races that can never intermarry. The union of 
such races produces the results described by Dr. Ivneeland. Similar 
results are observed when the two races differ less and where mar- 
riage is possible, as for instance in Mexico and Central Amei'ica, which 
are in ruins from the union of the Spanish and native blood. 
Union of different races is, on the other hand, often highly beneficial, 
our own blood being a fortunate result of such a union, but such 
races must be similar and not like those of Europe, Africa, and the 
natives of this country, wholly dissimilar or repugnant. At the 
South, the free black would suffer less from the effects of climate ; 
but much more from the extreme prejudice existing there towards 
the black, when he assumes the position of an equal. To suppose 
he could exist under such a state of things is to ignore all experience, 
and the observation of every day. In Jamaica, the English Gov- 
ernment have troops to pi'otect the freed slaves from the encroach- 
ments of their old masters ; but there it is stated, on the authority 
of the London Times, that the blacks are not only falling below the 
point of civilization attained during their servitude, but in many 
cases actually returning to their native barbarism, and the worship 
of idols. We have no such standing army here, but the slave, when 
free, must be left to the tender mercies of his former master. What 
would be the fate of the slave is as certain as is the fate of the 
North American Indian, the difference being that the Indian flies 
from civilization, which destroys him, while the imitative and mild- 
tempered African clings to civilization which as certainly destroys 
him. How far he may rise in the scale of civilization if left to 
himself, whether the African is a self-sustaining and progressive 
race, or whether it will lose, when left to itself, what has been 
gained, and fall back in a state of barbarism, are questions not set- 
tled as yet by experiment. The attempt is making in Liberia, and 
it is to be hoped successfully, to solve this question in favor of the 
negro ; but sullicient time has not yet elapsed, nor is the testimony 
which comes from the West Indies by any means such as could 
be wished. 



11 

From some of our Western States the colored man has been 
'entirely excluded. This is a wise provision, and a merciful one, to 
the blacks, who come into the free States only to drag out a few 
years in some menial employment, and then disappear with their 
families, if they have any, leaving no trace behind. If history and 
experience teach us anything, it is this, that two races constituted 
like the Anglo-Saxon and the African, can never co-exist in a state 
of equality, which means competition. So long as the inferior 
race is in a dependent condition, and can claim support and protec- 
tion from the white, it remains, with rare exceptions, contented and 
happy, the great burden of such a relation falling, in fact, upon the 
master, and not upon the slave. The moment that relation is 
changed, the negro thrown upon his own resources, and exposed to 
the withering and blasting effects of that ineradicable antipathy 
which exists towards all of African descent, that moment his fate 
is sealed ; he perishes like the autumn leaves when comes a killing 
frost, and, in course of a very few generations, not a vestige re- 
mains to show that he has ever existed. 

This is a truth which experience and observation have taught us, 
and which could not have been taught in the same manner to Mr, 
Jefferson, and other founders of our government, whose opinions 
are quoted in favor of the abolition of slavery. That slavery was 
an evil, they knew, and we know it also, but that the evil is mainly 
to the white, and that the black could never co-exist with his master 
in a state of freedom, they did not know, because the experiment 
had not been ti-ied. Sufficient time has now elapsed to settle that 
question, and in a manner which would seem to leave but small 
chance for doubt to a rational mind. 

Such, I suppose, to be the immutable law of Providence, regula- 
ting the intercours^e of those races which he has made, and given 
to one a white skin, and to the other a dark one. The Creator of 
all things could, doubtless, have made all white, or all black, but, 
for some purpose which we cannot fathom, he has chosen not to do so. 
He has created some races near akin to each other, and some 
entirely incompatible and repugnant, and it is not for us to say that 
he has done wrong. If possible, we should ascertain what are the 
laws, physical and moral, which he has established, and then we shall 
do well to acquiesce in them as being right, without attempting to 
repeal or improve upon them, or to set up in opposition our own 
notions about what we call abstract right. Right is not an abstrac- 
tion, but a reality, and, to find out what it is, we have to consult our 
■experience, observation, revelation, expediency, divine laws and 



v^ 



human laws, and every source from which we can gather the 
means of directing our limited capacities to the formation of just 
conclusions.* 

Some may say, perhaps, better let them perish then, than remain 
in slavery. As the slaves do not say so themselves, I do not, for 
one, feel warranted in saying it for them. They may, in the designs 
of Providence, have an important mission to perform, — that mission 
being, for aught we know, to carry back from their long sojourn in 
a land of bondage the seeds of civilization to benighted Africa, 
the home of their fathers. Whatever may be their ultimate fate, 
I do not feel warranted in hastening and deciding it by extermina- 
ting them, or, in other words, dissolving the tie that binds them to 
those whose duty and interest it is to protect them. A heavy 
burden lies upon the backs of the masters, which they cannot throw 
off' at Avill, and with which we are not burdened. They have a sad 
and perplexing duty to perform, and why should we, by our inter- 
ference, increase those burdens which we can do nothing to lighten ? 
All such interference is a positive injury to the slave, and insulting 
to those with whom we have formed a copartnership, and with 
whom we must live as one family, so long as we continue to be a 
free people. 

One who has a true respect for the colored man and a just regard 
for his interests, Avill not, I think, wish to see him placed in a false 
position, such as he occupies in the free States, hanging for a short 
time upon the skirts of a community which disowns him, and then 
sinking into the grave leaving no trace behind. For the negro 
there is, socially, no hope in the free States, and those who flatter 
him with such a prospect do him a most grievous wrong. A few 
of partly African descent and possessed of considerable intellectual 
endowments have been thus deceived, as they will no doubt have 
occasion to realize most fully. 

As lovers of their race how can they wish to see it occupy its 
present position in the free States ? If they would improve its 
condition, why not lead out a colony to its native land, where 
it can live and not die, where it can be relieved from the 
destroying influence of the Anglo-Saxon, and stand up on its ow-n 



* Out English common law is said to be the perfection of human wisdom. 
It is founded in right, and its object is to ascertain and establish the right. 
The sources from which it is drawn have been thus eniimerated. '< The law 
of nature ; the revealed law of God ; Christianity, morality, and religion ; 
common sense, legal reason, justice, natiu-al equity', hiuuauity." 



13 



ground, conscious of no superior, feeling its own dignity, and with 
ample opportunity for the develojiinent of all the faculties with 
which it has been endowed. Such a work would be worthy of 
the best intellect and the highest powers that have been bestowed 
on either black or white ; but those of the colored race who are con- 
tent with delivering anti-slavery lectures, or writing for anti-slavery 
papers, so far from elevating their race are engaged in a work 
which can end only in ruin, to the blacks certainly, in the loss of 
life and entire extinction, and to the whites in the loss it may be of 
a Union which no art can restore to its original beauty and per- 
fection when once destroyed. As the true friend of the negro, I 
would not flatter him with delusive hopes and false expectations that 
can never be realized as has been too often and constantly done 
by very excellent men, and with the very best intentions ; but, I 
would endeavor, as far as possible, to tell him the truth, however 
unpalatable, in the full belief that in the end such truth will operate 
for the best interest of all, black and white, bond and free. 

The diversities and repulsions of race which have been ordained, 
no doubt, for some wise purpose, are intended, perhaps, only for 
this state of existence. Another life may present a new order of 
things in which no such distinctions exist. Men have been created 
to differ from each other physically, morally, and intellectually, but 
still all are equal before the Creator of all, entitled to an equal 
share in his bounty, and to the enjoyments of life best suited to 
the genius and capacity of each. In another world the genius and 
capacity of all may be alike, all finding happiness in the society of 
all — and in a mutual pursuit of the same objects, whether of knowl- 
edge or of taste, of study or of worship. 

It is much to be hoped that this subject will ere long be treated 
in a very different manner from what it has been for the last fifteen 
or twenty years. It is simply a question of races, and all the vio- 
lent and bitter harangues that have been uttered have advanced not 
one step towards ameliorating the condition of the slave, or solving 
the problem of negro slavery in this country. Such harangues have 
only served to stir up strife and jealousy, to set one portion of the 
people against another portion, ai'ray in opposition members of the 
same family, and finally, when acting upon such fiery spirits and 
undisciplined minds as that of John Brown, to bring us to the 
brink of civil and servile war. » 

In offering the above suggestions, it may be proper to say, that I 
have done so with entire respect for the personal character and mo- 
tives of many of those who have been prominent in promoting and 



14 



bringing upon us the present state of things. I have the best 
reason to know that some of them have acted from a high sense 
of duty, and such no doubt is the case with those colored men 
to whom I have referred. I yield to no one in my regard and sym- 
pathy for the colored man, wherever he may be found, and would 
therefore see him placed in a true position, not in a false and impos- 
sible one. 

Those who have been so long agitating this subject, however hon- 
estly, may still have done so under a mistaken sense of duty, and 
the time has now come when the subject should be viewed in every 
aspect and in all its relations, so that, if possible, we can know the 
ground whereon we stand. No attempt, however humble, to throw 
light on a subject of such momentous importance should be discour- 
aged, and I cannot therefore feel that any apology is due from me 
for laying before the community some considerations which may 
present the subject, to many, in a somewhat new light. If it is true 
that the two races can never co-exist, in a state of freedom, it is a 
truth of the utmost importance, and should, therefore, be fully known 
and understood by all.* If that proposition is not true, its fallacy can 
no doubt be shown, or at any rate demonstrated by the lapse of time* 
In my judgment, time has, thus far, proved and confirmed it. 
The reader will judge from his own experience and observation, 
and the evidence here presented, how far my conclusion is a just 
and reasonable one. 

When we consider that the slave is supported from birth until he can 
labor, and from the time when he can no longer work until he dies, 
and also that at best his services are not worth more than one-third 
as much as those of free labor, it is very easy to see that he is the 
best paid laborer in the world, as it is certainly true that a more 
happy and contented laboring population is not to be found among 
civilized or uncivilized nations. With I'are exceptions, the relation 
of master and slave in our Southern States is a very happy one, at 
least to the slave. Kindness and indulgence are the rule, while 
cruelty and harsh treatment are the exception. Our Northern pa- 
tience would no doubt soon be exhausted, were we compelled to deal 
with and provide for a similar class of laborers. 



* Since the above was written, I find that the same theory is advanced by 
Mr. Buckle, in his History of Civilization, a very obvious theory, it would 
seem, and the resvdt of the most common observation, viz : that where two 
distinct races come together there can be no amalgamation, but the inferior 
must die out in presence of the superior. 



15 

At the same time, the slave is subject to occasional hardships. 
This is the fate of all, under whatever social system they may live. 
In some form or other, all men are called on to pay for the privi- 
leges they enjoy, nor could it be expected that the slave would be 
an exception to this general rule. If the marriage bond could be 
legalized and rendered more sacred, and families not allowed to be 
separated by sale, many cases of hardship would be prevented. 
This is a matter for the serious consideration of the slaveholder, if 
he would manifest to the world a desire to place the dependent race 
in the best possible condition, consistent with its safety. 

Of the possibility of such reforms, they are the best judges, how- 
ever, who have the burden upon them, and are best acquainted with 
the wants and capacities of the African race. It is easy for those 
stt a distance to give advice, in regard to a social system, the practi- 
cal working of which they are quite ignorant of, but those who are 
born and bred under such system can only know the diflSculties that 
lie in the way of reform, especially when those difficulties are aggra- 
vated by interference from abroad. 

Slavery may finally come to an end in the United States, by the 
operation of natural causes, such as the rapid increase and constant 
encroachment of free labor, and the fact that slave labor is so ex- 
pensive and tends so greatly to the impoverishing of the soil. As 
Slavery dies out, the colored race will disappear from the scene for- 
ever. It is not for us, I think, to hasten that time by revolution and 
servile insurrection, to put torches and pikes into the hands of such 
a population to be used agaiftst the whites, in re-enacting all the 
horrors of a St. Domingo massacre, and at the same time sealing its 
own fate as suddenly and as rapidly as the dew disappears before 
the rising sun. 

Public sentiment has undergone a marked change in England, 
on the subject of Slavery, within the last few years. The Anti- 
Slavery sentiment, like an epidemic, swept over the whole length 
and breadth of Great Britain, and in its course swept away Slavery 
in the British West Indies. The natural and inevitable re-action 
has already taken place in England, and happy will it be for us if 
it comes in this country before it is too late. That such a re-action 
is already taking place in the United States, hastened by the foray 
of John Brown, there is great reason to believe. 

The following extracts from the London Times are very sig- 
nificant : — 

Effect of Emancipation on the African Race. — There is no blinking 
the truth. Years of bitter experience ; years of hope deferred ; of self- 



^ 



16 



devotion unrequited ; of poverty ; of humiliation ; of prayers unanswered ; 
of sufferings derided ; of insults imresented ; of contum(>ly patiently en- 
diu-ed, — have con\'inced us of the truth. It must be spoken out loudly 
and energetically, despite the ■wild mockings of " howling cant." The freed 
West India slave Avill not till the soil for wages ; the free son of the ex-slave 
is as obstinate as his sii-e. He will not cultivate lands which he has not 
bought for his own. Yams, mangoes, and plantains — these satisfy Ms 
wants ; he cares not for yoiirs. Cotton, sugar and coffee, and tobacco — he 
cares but little for them. And what matters it to him that the Englishman 
has sunk his thousands and tens of thousands on mills, machinery and 
plants, which now totter on the languishing estate that for years has only 
retiu-ned beggary and debt. He eats his yams, and sniggers at " Buckra." 

We know not why this should be, but it is so. The negro has been 
bought with a price — the price of English taxation and English toil. He 
has been redeemed fi-om bondage by the sweat and travail of some millions 
of hard-working Englishmen. Twenty millions of pounds sterling — one 
hundred millions of dollars — have been distilled from the brains and muscles 
of the free English laborer, of every degree, to fasliion the West Indian 
negro into a "free and independent laborer." "Free and independent" 
enough he has become, God knows ; but laborer he is not ; and, so far as 
"we can see, never will be. He will sing hjTuns and quote texts ; but 
honest, steady industry he not only detests but despises. We wish to 
Heaven that some people in England — neither Government people nor 
parsons nor clcrgj-men, but some just-minded, honest-hearted and clear- 
sighted men — woixld go out to some of the islands (say Jamaica, Dominica, 
or Antigua) — not for a month or three months, but for a year — would 
watch the precious protege of English pliilanthropy, the freed negro, in his 
daily habits ; woidd watch him as he lazily plants his little squatting ; 
would see him as he proudly rejects agricultural or domestic services, or 
accepts it only at wages ludicrously di^roportionate to the value of his 
work. We wish, too, they would watch him while, with a hide tliicker 
than that of a hippopotamus, and a body to which ferA-id heat is a comfort 
rather than an annoyance, he droningly lounges over the prescribed task 
on which the intrepid Englishman, uninured to the burning sun, consumes 
his impatient energy, and too often sacrifices his life. We wish they wovdd 
go out and view the negro in all the blazonry of his idleness, his pride, his 
ingratitude, contemptuously sneering at the industry of that race which 
made him free, and then come home and teach the memorable lesson of 
their experience to the fanatics Avho have perverted him into what he is. 
******** 

The Abolitionists in America would have the population of the Southern 
States turned into a mixed race, whites, blacks, and mulattoes being on 
terms of equality, and constantly intcrmarrjing ; but if one thing more than 
another has tended to give to the Anglo-Saxon race in the New World the 
victory over the Spanish, it is that it has kept itself apart fi-om the red and 
negro races, and lodged poAver constantly in the hands of men of European 
origin. It has been fully proved, not only on the American continent, but 
in our own colonies, that the enforced equality of Eiuopean and African 
tends, not to the elevation of the black, but the degradation of the white 



/ 



/ 

17 

man. We cannot find any sympathy for those who would try, in the United 
States, the plan of a half-caste Republic, and we trust that the Federal 
Government and the right-thinking part of the community will protect the 
South fi-om the repetition of such outrages as that at Harrier's FeiTy. 

Oui" own race is boastful as well as intolerant and aggressive. 
This is especially true of the New England type, and hence it is 
that we are prone to regard ourselves in many, if not all respects, 
superior to the people of the South. In some respects, undoubtedly, 
we have the advantage of those who have been born and edu<;ated 
under a very diiferent social system ; but, on the other hand, ac- 
cording to the law of compensation, we lack much that is valuable 
in the Southern character and mental constitution. 

The nature of our climate and more especially of our institutions 
has given to our English blood a new and most powerful stimulus, 
so that we develope an immense amount of intellectual energy and 
activity, Avhich constantly seeks vent, and which constantly tends 
to run into some extreme or excess. Having lived for many years 
in a state of gi-eat material prosperity, we are prone to wax fat 
and kick. We have known no real evils, no invasion from with- 
out, or civil war within, and for Avant of any real danger we 
conjure up those that are imaginary. We torment ourselves with 
evils which have no existence but in our own brain. I think it 
was Judge Marshall who speaks of those imaginary evils, which as 
they are without cause, are also without remedy. 

The Southern mind is less active and more conservative, some- 
times erratic, but generally disposed to take a common sense and ra- 
tional view of things, and is, in some respects, more reliable than our 
own. It forms an admirable check in our political system, and 
preserves us from a natural tendency to run into the extreme of 
i-adicalism, and that spirit of agrarianism which has destroyed all 
former Republics. 

The constant tendency in a Republic is to remove all constitu- 
tional checks intended for the security of individual rights, and 
reduce everything to the rule of the majority. It is obvious that 
the Senate of the United States and the Supreme Court, though 
mtended as checks upon popular impulse and outbreaks, are yet 
but very imperfect barriers when opposed to what is termed the 
will of the people. It requires but a few years to change the 
political character of the Senate so that it shall reflect the prevail- 
ing sentiments of the day, and the same is true of the Supreme 
Court. In some of our States the judges are already elected from 
year to year, and must become to a greater or less extent political 
3 



V. 



partizaus. When these checks are removed and the rights of the 
individual are dependant on the bare will of the majority, then we 
have a ])iu-e democracy, which is pure despotism, and a despotism 
so dreadful that it soon gives way to despotism of a milder form 
in the person of a militaiy Dictator. We have no landed aris- 
tocracy which, in England, stands between the people and the 
throne, keeping each from encroaching upon the other, nor any 
real check in our system of government, unless it is the fixed fact 
of a large number of States, whose population is naturally and 
necessarily conservative, and which stands like a rock against the 
surging waves of popular excitement of agrarianism and radicalism 
from whatever quarter they may come. The assertion that Slavery 
was the corner-stone of American liberty, made some years ago by 
a statesman from South CaroUna, was looked upon with amaze« 
ment as a most absurd paradox, but time may show that it con- 
tained a truth which we have as yet failed to see and comprehend. 

The Southern cliaracter is more impulsive, but also more open 
and genial than our own. If it shows a hasty spark, it is also 
soon cold and rational again. It is not brooding and intolerant, 
nor easily led away into excesses, such as too often befall us of a 
more Northern clime. One prominent cause for such difference is, 
no doubt, to be found in the fact that, while we, at the North, 
live in towns and cities where men are in a constant state of action 
and reaction upon each othei", and the masses can be suddenly 
and extensively roused and excited, the Southern Planters live re- 
mote from each other, and, in many cases, in almost entire seclusion. 
Such a population is less in danger from these moral epidemics 
that from time to time sweep over communities, because it is sparse, 
and therefore not so much exposed to exciting causes ; thus, while it 
loses many good influences which flow from a more compact society, 
escaping also many serious evils to which the latter is subject. It 
is not France, but Paris, the great centre of population, the seat of 
all that is luxurious and refined, of science and of art, of every- 
thing in short which can serve to adorn and embellish social 
life; it is this Paris alone that makes and unmakes kings and 
emperors, that overthrows one dynasty during the night and sets 
up another the next morning, and then gives the law to the nation 
which stands looking on. Some editor or some orator touches that 
sympathetic telegraphic chord which passes through each individual 
of this vast living ma>s, and in an instant, as it were, the gutters 
run with blood, a ferocious mob rushes through every avenue, seek- 
ing vengeance for wrongs, which, if they have no existence, in fact, 



19 

exist not the less really in the excited and inflamed imagination. 
Then comes a satiety of blood, then a re-action, and tlien a state of 
things too often far worse than the first. Our own city of New 
York is considered by many to have become incapable of intelli- 
gent self-government, and to exhibit those evils which, especially 
under a government like our own, flow from the collection of a 
very large population at one point. A sparse and widely scattered 
population, which is also by necessity highly consecutive, may 
supply the very check we most need and which is not to be found 
in paper constitutions, courts or senates. 

In the gradual progress of time, free labor will doubtless overrun 
the more Northern Slave States, bringing fertility to the soil, and 
improving in many respects the condition of the white race, though 
fraught with ruin to all of African descent. My sympathies are 
with the latter as well as the former, and I cannot wish to 
see our swelling, aggressive, Northern Anglo-Saxon tide, over- 
flowing the Southern States, sweeping away perhaps the most 
conservative and useful element in our republican system, and 
at the same time utterly destroying in its course that helpless 
race which, in the providence of God, has been cast upon 
our shores. There is room enough for us all to live together in 
peace and harmony. The two races can co-exist in their present 
relative condition, but in no other way. This is the great lesson 
of history, experience, statistics, and the observation of every day. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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